<?php
/**
 * <https://y.st./>
 * Copyright © 2019 Alex Yst <mailto:copyright@y.st>
 * 
 * This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
 * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 * the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
 * (at your option) any later version.
 * 
 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
 * GNU General Public License for more details.
 * 
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 * along with this program. If not, see <https://www.gnu.org./licenses/>.
**/

$xhtml = array(
	'<{title}>' => 'Preparations',
	'<{body}>' => <<<END
<img src="/img/CC_BY-SA_4.0/y.st./weblog/2019/01/24.jpg" alt="A squirl eating a nut" class="framed-centred-image" width="649" height="480"/>
<section id="cleaning">
	<h2>Cleaning</h2>
	<p>
		I got some more cleaning done.
		Of note, I have the both the entryway table and entryway end table in presentable condition now.
		The table&apos;s pretty much been a receptacle for stuff I don&apos;t know where to put due to not having a living room and having to pack everything into everywhere else.
		Now, it&apos;s got only the mug of fake flowers I don&apos;t know what to do with, a live aloe, and several props.
		(I use the term &quot;props&quot; to refer to items I don&apos;t keep around for my use, but instead to convey my personality to guests.
		If no one ever entered my home, these items wouldn&apos;t have entered my home either.)
		The end table is back to being what I&apos;d originally put it in the entryway for: a receptacle for items that need to leave my home.
	</p>
</section>
<section id="drudgery">
	<h2>Drudgery</h2>
	<p>
		The missionaries were late, but they did arrive.
		Instead of moving on to the next lesson, they wanted me to tell them what I remembered from last time they were here.
		I don&apos;t exactly remember which lesson they&apos;d taught last, though if they&apos;d tried to quiz me on the contents of the lesson, I&apos;d probably do well.
		I remember what they&apos;re trying to get across, I just don&apos;t remember when each thing was presented.
		So I talked about the Garden of Eden, as it&apos;s what&apos;d been on my mind when they stood me up last.
	</p>
	<p>
		They claim the only way I can know their religion is true is to go all-in with this one specific religion.
		I explained how there are hundreds of religions, and how there&apos;s no way to know which religion to try to go all-in with, and they told me I should make a list of things I believe about Yahweh.
		From there, they say I an rule out many of the religions.
		I don&apos;t believe in Yahweh, and thus don&apos;t believe anything about him besides the fact that he&apos;s made-up, but making such a list about the more-general concept of a god should be useful for getting my point across.
		There are a number of logical arguments I have about gods, and it&apos;s the fact that they don&apos;t match up with what we see in our lives that keeps me form following the religions I&apos;ve encountered.
		I&apos;ve got to wonder what they&apos;re thinking though, as if Yahweh exists, I could make incorrect assumptions about him, this ruling out the one true religion as well.
		They tell me I should set time aside to read the scriptures each day.
		I&apos;m not sure that&apos;ll get any of their point across, however, I&apos;ve been meaning to read them anyway, just because I want to understand what it is people believe in.
		It might as well start with this.
		They recommend setting aside fifteen minutes each day.
		Or was it fifteen minutes twice each day?
		They were a bit unclear.
		I&apos;ll do the former though, at least until school starts.
		All bets are off as to if I&apos;ll have time once school starts.
		Anyway, they say they&apos;ll be back next week.
		I&apos;ve got to get them to stop calling me a &quot;he&quot; though.
		They pray when they arrive and when they leave, referring to me as a &quot;he&quot; in their prayers each time.
	</p>
	<p>
		I&apos;ll add to this list if I come up with more, but so far, this is what I think about gods:
	</p>
	<ul>
		<li>
			Animals of sufficient complexity, humans included, tend to have personalities.
			I can only assume a being as complex as a god would likely also have a personality.
		</li>
		<li>
			Personalities add variance; without knowing a god&apos;s personality, we can&apos;t deduce as much about said god.
			Even if a god inexplicably has no personality, the fact that we don&apos;t know that prevents us from making certain assumptions.
			Instead, we have to use what we see around us to rule out certain combinations of personality, motives, and abilities.
		</li>
		<li>
			A god that wanted to be known by all would make themself known to all.
			This would result in a world with only one religion.
		</li>
		<li>
			A god that didn&apos;t care if they were known or wanted to remain unknown would remain hidden.
			This would result in a world with many religions, but every last one of those religions would be false, made up by humans.
			The truth wouldn&apos;t make it into any religion.
		</li>
		<li>
			A god that creates beings simply to be their subjects is not a god worth following.
			Ethically, even if it results in eternal damnation or oblivion, we should reject such a god.
		</li>
		<li>
			A loving god would not for any reason alter our personalities.
			This includes changing us to be &quot;perfect&quot; versions of ourselves.
			If we are changed, we aren&apos;t ourselves, but instead someone similar to who we once were.
			By changing us, the god would be destroying the original us, which is something a loving god would never stand for.
		</li>
		<li>
			A sane and rational god would understand, support, and fully desire for people to use the scientific method.
			They would never ask us to take everything on faith alone or with faith as the main component.
		</li>
		<li>
			Something as complex as a human doesn&apos;t come from nothing.
			If a god didn&apos;t create us, we exist because of a chain of chemical reactions that can be traced back to the primordial ooze.
			A god is likely even more complex, and thus likewise cannot simply come from nothing.
			There must be some reason a god exists, or they cannot exist at all.
			Furthermore, if there&apos;s a reason a god exists, there may be reason for more than one to exist.
			Looking at humans, for example, my parents created me, then they created three other humans.
			Something complex enough to cause a god might produce more than one god using similar templates.
			This by no means guarantees that there are many gods and not just one, but shows that if there&apos;s one, it&apos;s possible there are also more.
			If there is in fact only one, why is there only one? Again, there must be some reason.
		</li>
		<li>
			Everything is directly caused by what happened just before.
			An all-knowing god would have created us as they intended us to be, causing all of our actions later as a direct result.
			The term &quot;free will&quot; is garbage in this context.
			Yes, we choose all our actions of our own free will, but we choose those actions based on who we are as people.
			If a god crated us, that god decided who we are as people.
			If the god that crated us isn&apos;t all-knowing, perhaps they didn&apos;t know what we would do, but if they do know everything, they created each of us knowing what we&apos;d individually do given the parameters of the world and the parameters of who we are.
			If an all-knowing god did indeed create us, they <strong>*intentionally*</strong> created all suffering, all evil, and all strife.
			Given that, we know an all-knowing god could not be a loving god and still create us and this world.
			This means that either the god that created us is all-knowing but not all-loving, all-loving but not all-knowing, neither all-loving nor all-knowing, or no god created us to begin with.
		</li>
		<li>
			A loving god would want us to have the facts and use them to find what we believe to be the best solution instead of withholding the important details and asking us to act on faith.
			It is not possible to love someone and not want them to make their own decisions - that&apos;s an important part of what love is - so it&apos;s not possible for a god to both love us and want us to act on faith.
		</li>
		<li>
			There&apos;s no inherent reason why it&apos;d be good for more beings to exist.
			Therefore, we can assume that if a god created us, it was out of boredom, loneliness, or for the benefit of another god who was bored or lonely.
		</li>
		<li>
			If we were created out of loneliness, there&apos;s a decent chance that god loves us, but there&apos;s also a decent chance that god just wants pawns to control or to have observe their god&apos;s greatness.
		</li>
		<li>
			Only a conceited god would seek blind warship, or warship at all, for that matter.
		</li>
		<li>
			A lonely but loving god would be more likely to instead seek personal relationships with their creations.
		</li>
		<li>
			Humans are terrible, but we&apos;re no doubt very entertaining.
			A bored god doesn&apos;t seem too far-fetched.
		</li>
	</ul>
</section>
<section id="package">
	<h2>Drudgery</h2>
	<p>
		I finally got that package sent.
		It&apos;ll arrive three days late.
		That&apos;s what he gets for not just giving me the address though.
	</p>
</section>
<section id="bicycle">
	<h2>Drudgery</h2>
	<p>
		In trying to find a place to attach the bike lock dock to the bike, already knowing no such place exists, I found a couple helpful things about the bike.
		First of all, the seat was raised to provide space for the back reflector, which could be attached no other way due to the strange shape of the bike&apos;s frame.
		That reflector comes off though, allowing the seat to lower down to a reasonable position that makes riding comfortable.
		Second, the seat did indeed just have a lose bolt.
		I was wrong, it&apos;s not a stupid swivel-seat.
		The seat was still manufactured by a company that makes defective products though, so you can&apos;t really blame me for not trusting that they built a sane bike seat.
		Additionally, after tightening the bolt, it came loose again same-day.
		Like I said, you can&apos;t expect quality from this company.
	</p>
</section>
<section id="vasectomy">
	<h2>Vasectomy preparations</h2>
	<p>
		As I stated before, if I&apos;m going to get this vasectomy, I should do it while school is in session so when I take the week off from work, I&apos;ll be able to put that time toward my studies.
		The surgeon doesn&apos;t want me exercising though, which means no biking to the grocery store.
		I should have enough at home to keep me fed on stuff I&apos;ll actually enjoy.
		I don&apos;t know for sure all what I want on hand for that week, but I&apos;ve stocked up on breakfast cereal, soy milk, bread, and spring rolls.
		I already have large quantities of peanut butter and jelly on hand from another time I stocked up.
		I also bought the ingredients I was missing for chilli, though unlike the other things I made sure to have, I didn&apos;t get a week&apos;s worth.
		I should remember to buy potatoes the day before the surgery, but I can&apos;t get them just yet because they&apos;ll spoil.
	</p>
</section>
END
);
